Salzburg

Salzburg was one of the highlights of our honeymoon trip. The city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 and is famous for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's also the setting of a little film few have heard of called The Sound of Music (only one of my favorite movies of all time). The city was never on my list of places to visit but, I'm so happy Steve and I had the opportunity to go.

Salzburg is only a 90 minute drive from Munich, where we were staying during our time in Germany. Our day began with more rain but the entire drive to Salzburg, we prayed for sun. I was really hoping we'd be able to do a bike tour of the city and I was worried the rain would dash my hopes and dreams.

We parked the car in an underground garage, stepped out onto the street, and there in front of us was Frauline Maria's Bicycle Tour. 

The Sound of Music Bike Tour

Thankfully the tour had room for two more people, and the tours take place rain or shine. There's typically one tour every morning at 9:30 but during the summer months (which is when we visited), they also offer an afternoon tour at 4:30. During the tour, we stop by all the major sites of The Sound of Music film, including:

• Nonnberg Abbey
• The Mozart Bridge
• Residence Square
• The Horse Pond
• Mirabell Gardens
• Frohnburg Palace
• The Gazebo
• Leopoldskron Palace
• St. Peter's Cemetery

We had such a fun, sprightly tour guide. She was from Spain but said she visited Salzburg five years ago and loved the city so much, she never left. I totally get it. Salzburg is special. There's something about the city that makes you feel a bit more creative, more romantic, and slightly nostalgic.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was when she played the film soundtrack from her iPhone speakers while we biked. The music brought back childhood memories of watching the film with my grandparents. The tour was the best 3.5 hours and certainly the most fun tour I've ever been on. 12/10 would recommend. When you've grown up a fan of The Sound of Music like me, it's a dream come true to bike through beautiful Salzburg with a group of lovely people who also love the film, belting out all the songs.

It wasn't until the tour ended and we were returning our bikes did Steve reveal that he had never actually watched the film from start to finish.

St. Peter

After the bike tour, we were on the hunt for lunch. Earlier on the tour, our guide had mentioned that we had passed by the oldest restaurant in Europe. St. Peter Stiftskulinarium dates back to 803 AD when Charlemagne visited the restaurant. Charle-freakin'-magne. Christopher Columbus, Johann Georg Faust, and Mozart are also said to have been served there. Hearing this made me geek out. Then, we walked into the restaurant and my Indiana Jones-loving mind was blown.

St. Peter was one of the coolest restaurants. The main floor of the restaurant, where we sat, was literally carved into the mountainside. The cavernous ceiling and walls made the restaurant feel very medieval. As someone who once wanted to major in medieval history in college, I was seriously nerding out and the entire time we were there, I essentially pretended like I was in a remake of The Last Crusade. 

While one side of the restaurant made me feel like I was a Neanderthal, the other side felt completely modern and high-end. The servers were impeccably dressed, kind, and spoke English perfectly. The food came out beautifully plated and delicious.

If you ever visit St. Peter, you must check out the bathroom on the main floor. For such an old institution, its bathroom was downright futuristic. You press a button for the bathroom door to slide open. Then, you walk inside and find spotless amenities that are sleek and monochromatic. Totally unexpected at a restaurant that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Old Meets New

There is a busy shopping street in Salzburg called Getreidegasse. The street has been popular since the 12th century and is now packed with trendy stores, souvenir shops, and restaurants. There are also a few antique stores, which were my favorite to browse through. You can't get much more antique than Europe.

But, the wildest thing to me was seeing stores like Zara, Foot Locker, and H&M in these old, ornate buildings decorated with gold wrought-iron signs. The juxtaposition in Salzburg is surreal - a mix of old and new everywhere I turned.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On our third day in Germany, we set our alarms for 6 am to get to Neuschwanstein Castle bright and early (well, rainy and early in our case). It's only a 90 minute drive from Munich, but we read that tickets to tour the inside of the castle were only available at the ticket booth the day of. The ticket booth opened at 8 am and when we arrived at 8:30, there was already an hour-long line to purchase tickets.

We ended up buying tickets to see both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles since they were only a 15 minute walk from each other.

Lessons Learned

We learned that the walk up the hill to Neuschwanstein Castle is actually pretty steep. I was only slightly embarrassed by the older women walking up the hill faster than me. I clearly need to do more cardio.

Sometimes the scenery outside the castle is more interesting than what's inside. It was neat walking through the different rooms of both castles and learning about King Ludwig II (that dude was crazy but also very much ahead of his time). But, the tours were each only 30 minutes long and we saw just a fraction of the castles. We spent more time waiting in line for the tickets and tours than actually being on the tours themselves. Instead, one of my favorite memories was walking across Marienbrucke (Queen Mary's Bridge). The wooden footbridge crosses a gorge behind Neuschwanstein Castle, and the view of the castle from the bridge was even better than the view closeup. It looked straight out of a fairytale book.

I remember nervously stepping onto the wooden planks of the bridge. It was drizzling and I didn't want to slip and fall to a grisly death. Some of the planks would teeter slightly as I stepped on them. As I slowly inched my way across the bridge, I called out to Steve, who was way ahead of me. A German man turned to me and said, "Don't worry. This is German engineering. The best in the world." We all had a good laugh, and his words helped me pick up my pace.

I did ask our guide one question while touring Hohenschwangau Castle. I asked if the castles were greatly damaged during WWII. He said no because Germany didn't really get attacked until the end of WWII. I so badly wanted to ask him a million more questions about Germany's history and his perspective on the world wars, but I politely refrained.

Hotel Müller had a killer breakfast buffet while we waited for the Neuschwanstein tour to start. And, the bathrooms were super nice (equally important).

Taj Mahal

After standing in the rain all day, we got back to Munich and craved something warm and comforting to eat. We had walked by the Taj Mahal a couple of times already since it was near our Airbnb, but I kept telling Steve that we didn't travel all this way to eat Indian food we could get in Chicago. Boy, was I wrong. I'm so glad Steve convinced me to try this place.

Because we were famished, we naturally ordered the special menu, which was essentially a sample of everything. We ended up eating ALL of it. Thank goodness calories on vacation don't count. 

Nuremberg

It's amazing how 12 hours of sleep can make you feel like a brand new person. After not getting any sleep the night before we arrived in Munich, 12 hours was much needed. No more cranky Linda (much to the delight of Steve, I'm sure).

Because we slept in, we were too late to make a trip to Salzburg or Neuschwanstein, so we decided to visit Nuremberg. It was only a 90 minute drive from Munich. A word of advice, Nuremberg can show up on the GPS in many ways: Nuremberg, Nürnberg, Nueremberg, and Nüremberg).

We had zero expectations about what Nuremberg would be like. I think because of that we found the city much more enjoyable than Munich (the 12 hours of sleep probably helped too).

Before visiting, I only knew of Nuremberg from learning about the Nuremberg trials that took place there between 1945 and 1946. Nuremberg itself is a beautiful, quaint city that really displays the best of Bavarian culture, something I didn't see too much of in Munich. The vibe was super chill, a nice change from the crowds and commercial stores in bigger cities.

The city center was fun to explore. It was bustling with tourists. There was a little market and a music stage. Hovering over all this was St. Lorenz Church, which was originally built in 1477. Fun fact: constructing the church first began in 1270 and took over 200 years to complete. We just don't have history like this in the US!

restauration kopernikus

We loved this Polish restaurant so much that we ate there for lunch and dinner. We ordered the bigos (cabbage stew with sausage), the piroggen (pierogi), the fränkischer schweinebraten (baked pork and a side of dumpling), and the pfannenschnitzel (schnitzel). The portion sizes were on point.

Munich

Munich is only a 2.5 hour flight from Dublin, but we made the mistake of taking an early morning flight. This meant we only caught a few hours of sleep in our Dublin hotel before dragging ourselves to the airport.

I was a grumpy cat for the rest of the day. Steve can attest to this. After an afternoon of being very cranky and wandering around Munich, I ended up giving in to my exhaustion and taking a long nap on a bench in Englischer Garten.

Note to self: when tired and traveling, always make time for a nap. It'll make the rest of the day much more pleasant.

THE NICEST CAR WE'LL EVER DRIVE

Steve made it a goal to tell as many people on our trip as possible that we were on our honeymoon. And I must say, it often worked in our favor.

"You're on your honeymoon?" said the gentleman at the front desk of the car rental service at the Munich airport. "You can't drive a Volkswagen on your honeymoon. I'm giving you a brand new Mercedes, fresh off the factory floor. It only has 13 km on it."

Stuff like this never happens to us. We're not the types who win lotteries, run into celebrities, or get upgrades. But, maybe we are now...

the Architecture

We should have enjoyed our first day in Munich more because little did we know that it would rain for the rest of our visit. In the sun, the colors of the city popped unlike any city I've been in. Red flowers on the windowsill, the golden walls of the Theatine Church, the bright green trees in the gardens. Every scene could have been straight from a painting.

The architecture in the city was simply stunning. Everywhere I turned, there were monstrous, gothic-style buildings and some that reminded me of the baroque style of Versailles. We learned that the city was heavily bombed during WWII. Up to 80% of the historic buildings were destroyed and much of what we saw was rebuilt after the war.

The food

Beer, bread, schnitzels, and strudels.

One of the neat things about Munich is that most restaurants have a beer garden or outdoor seating of some sort. We had lunch at the Park Cafe, where Steve ordered a delicious plate of pork schnitzel - lightly breaded and thinly sliced. It came with a side of lingonberry sauce and creamy dill potatoes. 

I once read in a magazine that the average German consumes over 3,500 calories a day. This doesn't surprise me considering the amount of bread and dairy and sugar I consumed during my stay. No regrets though. Everything I ate was delicious.

One last thing...

My favorite photo of Steve.

Downtown Galway

After spending most of our time in Ireland on the cliffs and in the countryside, it was strange being in a city again. But, we had a few hours to kill before driving to Dublin and decided to make one last stop in Galway.

Despite the rain, I could sense the city's charm, especially in The Latin Quarter, as we walked by stone-clad cafes, colorful storefronts and art galleries. It was nice to see that the city hadn't been totally taken over by globalization yet.

For lunch, we ordered a hearty fish stew at Maxwells. Definitely hit the spot on a cold, rainy day.

I can't wait to go back and spend some quality time in the city.